The previews for Streets of New Capenna have been concluded in whirlwind fashion, and there is no denying that the set has a ton of great cards for Commander. Be sure to check out Sheldon Menery’s set review this week to ensure there aren’t any gems that might have slipped by you for preorders. Me, I’m going to be digging into some of the coolest new legends to build decks around, and this week I’d like to focus on Jaxis, the Troublemaker!
Even though Streets of New Capenna is very much focused on gold cards, it’s nice that they gave us a few monocolored legends we can build around. There’s something very satisfying about building and running a one-color deck, where you almost never have to worry about color-fixing your mana or being able to cast your spells, where most of your deck budget isn’t taken up by expensive rare lands that simply allow you to cast your spells. Wizards of the Coast (WotC)’s Studio X has been cranking out some sweet Commander cards for red decks in recent years, and it’s quite reasonable to sit down at a Commander pod with mono-red and feel pretty good about your chances for winning. I personally have two mono-red Commander decks that I absolutely love, and they play quite differently from each other: Feldon of the Third Path and Valduk, Keeper of the Flame.
I’m strongly considering adding a third mono-red deck to my stable of Commander decks since Jaxis, the Troublemaker seems fun, at a decent power level, and would play quite different from my other two mono-red decks.
The Jaxis Factor
So, what does Jaxis, the Troublemaker bring to the table? Inevitably people are going to compare Jaxis to a classic mono-red legend, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker!
Side by side, we can see some differences, and it looks like it’s all upside for Kiki-Jiki: the card has haste, so it can be used right away, and the only cost to activate is to tap it. If you have a way to untap Kiki-Jiki when a creature enters the battlefield, you can “go infinite” by making hasty copies over and over and over. Kiki-Jiki combo kills have been a staple of Commander decks for just about the entirety of the format’s existence, so one upside to playing Jaxis, the Troublemaker is that people won’t be on guard against you from turn 1.
Do You Copy?
So, what other upsides are there for Jaxis? One big upside is that Jaxis can copy any creature you control, including legendary creatures which Kiki-Jiki can’t. But Bennie, you may counter, why would I do that if the creature is just going to die to the legend rule? Well, first off sometimes they won’t…
But even so the legend rule does apply, sometimes that’s okay to copy a legendary creature if it has some sort of trigger you want to take advantage of, and at a bare minimum you are using Jaxis to cycle away a card in your hand since the copy it makes will draw you a card when it dies. And truly, this ability is where Jaxis really shines, making a copy of something that will draw you a fresh card when it dies. Keep in mind too that sometimes discarding a card is a benefit; Studio X has made quite a few cards of late that care or synergize with discarding outside of just reanimation strategies.
The fact that Jaxis has a blitz ability gives it a way to shave two mana from its mana cost is mildly interesting but that seems more something for playing the card in tournament decks rather than Commander since commander tax would still apply to the alternate casting cost.
Let’s dig in!
Enters the Battlefield
The first order of business in any Jaxis deck is a bunch of creatures with enters-the-battlefield effects, and I’ve picked out a bunch of them here. Terror of the Peaks is a great Jaxis target since when the copy is made, you’ll get to throw five points of damage at any target, and then any other creature that enters the battlefield under your control will get two Terror triggers. Copying Skyline Despot will let you get back the monarch. Copying Stuffy Doll will let you target another player right before you cast something like Blasphemous Act.
Zealous Conscripts and Molten Primordial are doubly nice in this deck; when you first cast one, you’ll get to temporarily steal one or more of the best creatures on the battlefield, and then use Jaxis to copy one. And if it happens to be legendary, you’ll be able to destroy your opponent’s copy rather than give it back. Later, copy Conscripts or Primordial again to temporarily steal one or more of the best creatures on the battlefield.
Benefits from Haste
Next up are creatures that have powerful attack triggers but don’t inherently have haste. A lot of the times they will have a big bullseye on them for your opponents, and by the time it comes around to your next turn the creature will be destroyed or exiled, so why not copy it with Jaxis and get use out of it right away with a copy that has haste?
Combat Celebrant is one of those cards that breaks with Kiki-Jiki to give you unlimited attack steps but is much fairer with Jaxis. It’s still worth including, though, if your deck wants to get an extra attack step each turn!
Leaves the Battlefield or Dies
Next up are creatures that trigger when they leave the battlefield or die, since the copies that Jaxis make self-sacrifice at the end of your turn if they don’t die in combat. Wurmcoil Engine is a powerhouse on its own, but getting to make a copy each turn that attacks and then leaves behind two 3/3 tokens when it dies is going to feel amazing! Speaking of six mana 6/6 artifact creatures, how about copying Scuttling Doom Engine? It’s impossible to block with small creatures, and when it dies, you get to dome an opponent for six damage. Boom!
Discard Matters
When I went searching for cards that care about discarding, I was excited to be reminded of Surly Badgersaur! I’ve been looking for a deck to run this Badger Dinosaur, red’s answer to Bone Miser, and Jaxis is perfect, giving you a Swiss Army knife selection of various effects you can choose based on the card you discard to Jaxis. Containment Construct is a potent new card from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty that lets you take a card you wanted to actually cast this turn and discard it to fuel Jaxis’s ability and still get to cast it.
Madness
Of course, another way to squeeze value out of discarding is to discard cards with the madness ability. There’s not a lot available for mono-red, but some of them can be useful. Just remember that Jaxis can only activate as a sorcery, so you’ll lose that angle that most decks that play madness spells get to take advantage of.
Sacrifice for Profit
The copies that Jaxis makes self-sacrifice during your end step, but what if you want them to die earlier in your turn so that you can draw a card? You might consider adding a few ways to sacrifice creatures or permanents to your decklist. If your deck is artifact-heavy, then Trading Post is a great choice since you can sacrifice the copy to return an artifact card from your graveyard to your hand, and if the copy happens to be an artifact creature, you can sacrifice it to draw a card, which will let you go up on cards from the transaction. Value!
Magus of the Wheel is a nice copy target since you can immediately sacrifice it to draw a fresh new hand of seven cards plus one from the copy dying, which is a great way to get ahead on cards with Jaxis.
Untap Creatures
Ways to untap creatures can let you get double duty out of Jaxis on your turn, and one card I’d definitely find a spot for is Thousand-Year Elixir, since it lets Jaxis activate on the turn it enters the battlefield.
Mono-Color/Red Matters
At the start of this article, I talked about some advantages of playing mono-color, so I wanted to dig a little deeper there. Commander’s Plate and War Room are fantastic cards to include in any mono-color deck. Scuttlemutt is surprisingly useful for plugging the vulnerability that a creature or other effect might provide protection from the color you happen to be playing; you’d definitely like to change the color of one of your red creatures so that you can block that creature attacking you equipped with Sword of Fire and Ice!
Red is good at destroying artifacts but is pretty weak at destroying enchantments, so adding Liquimetal Torque to your deck lets you turn your artifact destruction into enchantment destruction.
For red decks in particular, I love having access to cards like Fiery Emancipation, Pyromancer’s Goggles, and Runaway Steam-Kin!
Mountains Matter
Another advantage of playing mono-red is access to cards that care about Mountains, with a prime candidate being Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle! Chances are pretty high that you’ll have five other Mountains on the battlefield in a game of Commander when you’re playing a strictly red deck. Getting a free Lightning Bolt each time you play a Mountain is some nice value.
If you want to punish greedy manabases in your Commander pod, you can even play Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon, which will generally not harm you at all.
Shenanigans
A few final things to point out for mono-red Jaxis. First, make sure you include Sundial of the Infinite: when the copy you’ve made with Jaxis puts its self-sacrifice trigger on the stack, you can end the turn to clear the stack and keep your creature. Note that it keeps haste and the ability to draw a card when it dies! Lithoform Engine is an incredible tool in many Commander decks, but being able to copy Jaxis’s activated ability will let you get two copies of a card and two cards to draw when they die.
Hellkite Courser is an interesting choice. If you cast it and have a mana available, you can bring Jaxis onto the battlefield from the command zone with haste and copy a creature. If you happen to have Phyrexian Altar on the battlefield too, things can get wild—activate to copy Hellkite Courser, and in response sacrifice it to Phyrexian Altar for a red mana and put it back in the command zone. When the copy enters the battlefield, you can put Jaxis back out and do it all over again, limited only to the number of cards in your hand you can discard to Jaxis. Keep in mind that Jaxis is never cast from the command zone in this scenario, so you won’t be increasing the commander tax. Four or five or six or more 6/5 flying hasty Dragons might be just what you need to put a game away!
Jaxis in the 99
Last up, I wanted to suggest some other commanders that might appreciate Jaxis in the 99! I’m definitely going to be putting Jaxis in my Feldon of the Third Path deck, since pitching a large creature to the graveyard to copy with Feldon is exactly what I want to be doing and making a large creature with Feldon is often going to be what I want Jaxis copying! Copying Kardur, Doomscourge with Jaxis and immediately sacrificing the copy to the legend rule lets you goad all of your opponents’ creatures each turn, and really shows the value of Jaxis over Kiki-Jiki here. Obeka, Brute Chronologist lets you have a Sundial of the Infinite attached to your commander, so Jaxis will be right at home there.
Commanders that let you draw extra cards are going to be awesome homes for Jaxis, since that will provide more fuel for activating Jaxis; things like Nin, the Pain Artist and Korvold, Fae-Cursed King spring to mind here.
So, what do you think about Jaxis, the Troublemaker? What sort of cards would you include in a Jaxis Commander deck? Which Commander deck would love to have Jaxis in the 99?
Talk to Me
Do me a solid and follow me on Twitter! I run polls and get conversations started about Commander all the time, so get in on the fun! You can also find my LinkTree on my profile page there with links to all my content.
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And lastly, I just want to say: let us love each other and stay healthy and happy.
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